A CNN panel made a dark joke Friday night that vetting for top presidential administrations is an old-school mentality.
Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson told anchor Anderson Cooper that she believes Elon Musk will be the “single most important and influential person” in the Trump administration, following reports the tech billionaire joined a call with President-elect Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“He is in charge now of the information flow with X — or misinformation, sometimes — he is in charge as we saw with what’s going on with Ukraine. He’s basically in charge of the entire communication system over there. So it lives and dies with him.”
Carlson said some reports have said Musk will also be tasked with “slashing costs” and purging federal bureaucracy.
“He’s basically going to be in charge and influencing every aspect of the government,” she said.
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When Cooper noted some in the administration will have to go through Senate confirmations and background checks, fellow panelist and former Obama official Van Jones scoffed.
“You’re so old-fashioned, Anderson!” he said with a laugh. “Vetting of people to make sure they don’t have conflicts of interest!? Make sure they don’t have foreign governments with dirt on them? That’s old-fashioned. You win, you do what you want. That’s the new way!”
Jones added that some on the right have advised him to calm down — a notion he vehemently rejected.
“This is not normal! This is totally weird! This is bizarre!”
Even so, Jones said there are some “real upsides” such as the privatization of the space program.
“Elon Musk has done an incredible job with his space program,” said Jones. “The problem is he also has a conflict of interest with having this many government contracts.”
During an ordinary presidency, that would be a conflict of interest the government would want to avoid, he said. Not anymore.
“We don’t care anymore apparently,” said Jones.
Watch the clip below or at this link.